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Firefly - Too hot for the beer



Today is Tuesday 12th January 2016 and after several days spent getting everything prepared, Firefly is finally heading north west towards Thailand. Firefly was berthed at Reebak Marina, Langkawi, Malaysia, over Christmas and the New Year while we had a busy but enjoyable visit back to Blighty.

Arriving back at the boat late in the evening it was a relief to find everything as it had been left and apparently no worse for being closed up in the baking temperatures. There was however a distinctly 'yeasty' aroma but it was too late for any investigations and an attempt was made to get some sleep despite both the heat and the jetlag.

Early the following morning Nasir arrived to finish off fitting the new sun awnings. The old Bimini was being replaced and various other removable sections for either rain or sun shade were being added - these additions being essential in this hotter humid climate. On Nasir's business card he calls himself the 'Yacht Tailor' and the quality of the work he has done certainly proves why he has such a good reputation around here. The agreement when we left for the UK was that the work would be completed by the time we came back and this visit would be to finalise things and to pay the bill. It would in fact take several more days until we reached completion as clearly Nasir was well behind schedule.

Despite the heat and the numerous mosquitos, Reebak Marina is in fact a very good place to be so the delay was not a huge problem. The Marina shares the secluded island with a very nice hotel and the yachting folk are very welcome to use the excellent facilities. We have spent every afternoon at the pool, cooling down under the overhanging Frangipani trees - feeling like we are on a package holiday! One afternoon, while in the pool we were watching a beautiful Hornbill picking the fruit from the palm trees with the end of his huge beak and then tossing it to the back of his throat with a flick of his head.

The 40 remaining cans of Australian Victoria Bitter purchased back in Darwin where the culprits for the yeasty smell. They had been stored under the floorboards where one would have assumed they would have stayed cool enough. This was clearly not the case as when the floorboard came up there was a mass of brown semi liquid slime - and Firefly was now smelling like a full on brewery. Of the cans, only 8 remained intact and these where removed to the safety of the fridge while the remainder that had 'popped' were put in with the garbage during the clean up operation.

In order to check out of Malaysia and to get our final shopping we arranged a trip to the the main town called Kuah. Contacting Mr Din we hired a car for the next day - it would be waiting for us when we got off the first ferry from Reebak Island the next morning. Interestingly Mr Din needs no driving licence or deposit and the charge per day is only about £8. We therefore did not expect too much in the way of luxury or refinement but what we got was still somewhat of a shock. Meeting Mr Din's employee we were led to a tiny box on wheels. It was probably a Daihatsu although any badges would have fallen off years back. It is not going to manage many more trips to Kuah as it was an absolute wreck, the engine was on its last legs and kept losing power but it did have brakes and the aircon worked!

With yesterday's International check out complete, the galley restocked and the marina bill paid there was no further excuses for spending any more time lounging in the pool. There were a few final checks to make before we left the dock earlier today. AIS is a strict requirement on the west of Thailand and it has to be left on continuously. Therefore just before leaving we checked with another yacht that they could see our AIS transmission and to further see if it was still on if we turned off the chartplotter.

From Langkawi to Phuket its about 120 miles. Ao Chalong, on the south of the island is the place we will check in and the Thai Authorities allow a maximum of 7 days for the trip. Most yachts stop several times en route and it is our plan to spend a day or two around Ko Lipe, one of the Butang Group of Islands. The wind was about 12 knots on the beam when we left and we had a lovely sail for the first couple of hours. Sadly the breeze died away and we are now motoring the last few miles to reach our first Thai Island.

Paul and Susie

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